Finding motivation when you’re depressed- a (not so great) mystery. If you are experiencing depression, chances are you are feeling quite unmotivated too.

Depression is great at sucking all motivation, inspiration, and energy out of our lives and leaving us with…not much.

And when you’re deep in depression and want to pull yourself out, it can be hard to get anywhere. Sometimes the desire for a better life or situation is there, but the motivation is nowhere to be found.

So what can you do? Is depression stronger than our ability to create better lives for ourselves?

Absolutely not.

Depression can be strong and it can be all consuming. I’ll admit that. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the end of your story.

To get out of this pit, you need to be willing to fight, and you have to find the motivation to do so. 

To find the motivation, you need to know where to look. 

In this post, I will go over tips & tricks for finding the motivation you need to not only get through the day, but to begin improving your life and finding your way out of the depression. 

All of these tips are ones that I’ve used in my own battle with depression.

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How to find motivation when you’re depressed

1. Get out of bed and get ready for the day.

Even if you are going to be sitting at home all day, the act of getting out of your pajamas, putting on a cute outfit, and taking care of your basic hygiene needs is important. 

The simple act of getting out of pajamas and into something clean can make us feel refreshed and a bit more ready to take on the day. Even if ‘something clean’ is just a pair of sweats.

2. Don’t focus on too much at once.

One of the biggest ruiners of motivation is overwhelm. 

If you want to be more likely to keep going, try to focus on one thing at a time. Need to brush your teeth? Just focus on that for now. Then it’s time to make breakfast? For now, just focus on getting through breakfast. 

A great way to do this is to practice mindfulness. 

Mindfulness is essentially practicing being present in the moment, and really noticing the details of what’s going on. It’s an amazing thing for mental health and depression and can help you find calm. 

Interested in learning more about mindfulness? I am currently in the process of creating a mini-course all about mindfulness and how to make it a part of your everyday life!

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3. Get visual.

One of the best ways to find motivation is to learn to visualize. Often with depression, it can be hard to think about and ‘see’ a happy future for ourselves. 

Depression can take away our hope, and with that, our image for our future selves. 

Learning to visualize is extremely important if you want to move forward. 

It can be hard to do, but with practice and patience, you will get there. 

Once you can visualize, start to try picturing yourself where you WANT to be. Picture a year, 5 years, or 10 years from now. What are you doing? And here is the trick: don’t picture yourself being depressed and unhappy. Picture yourself doing something you love. Picture yourself being the best version of yourself. You’ve overcome your depression, you have a career you love and your free time is spent doing what makes you happy. You feel confident in your own skin. You are the definition of happy & well. 

Ever heard the saying ‘seeing is believing? Yeah, that kind of applies here too. 

What we see for the future, we believe to be true. And to add another cheesy quote in here, ‘if you can believe it, you can be it.’

Picture the life you want. And keep visualizing it every day, until you believe it. Then when you believe it, do what you need to do to make that dream a reality. 

Moving forward can be hard if we can’t picture what we are working towards. 

Visualization is KEY.

4. Fill your mind with inspiration daily.

This one kind of goes hand-in-hand with visualization. 

If you are feeling a little down about your life (and probably a little uninspired) a great way to feel hopeful again is to seek out inspiration. 

One of my favorite ways to do this is to create a Pinterest board called ‘dream life’ or ‘the life I am working toward’ or something like that, and fill it with things you want for yourself. 

Pinterest is FULL of inspiring content for any and every type of person, and there is most definitely something on there to inspire you. Here is a photo of what mine looks like:

Mine is mostly filled with health, travel, home design, and hobby things, and photos that make me feel inspired to be my best self. I want to be healthy, travel the world, have a home I love, and have fun hobbies. That is what inspires me.

Pin anything that makes you feel inspired and giddy. 

See a house you would LOVE to have? Pin it. See a photo of someone that makes you think ‘that’s the kind of life I want’? Pin it. See a photo of someone flying first class like you have always dreamed of doing? Pin it. Always dreamed of going to Greece? Search Greece and pin it, baby, pin it. 

The trick to this is to keep this habit up. Everyday, add at least a pin or two to this board, and make sure you look at it often. Pin stuff that makes you get that same giddy feeling every time you look at it. 

It’s important to stay inspired so that we can remember what we are working toward. 

Sometimes ‘I don’t want to be depressed anymore’ just isn’t enough to get us moving. It might take a little extra push, and that’s when inspiration exercises like this come in super handy.

5. Let nature give ya a boost.

I know, I know, you’ve heard all about how spending time in nature is good for you. But sometimes with depression, it can be hard to get out of bed, let alone go for a full-on walk. 

BUT, nature is a tool that you do not want to leave out of your depression toolkit. 

Getting outside, feeling the sunshine on your face, feeling the wind, smelling the flowers, all of that- it’s a mood booster. For real. 

And this doesn’t have to be a big task if you’re not ready for that. You don’t have to go for a 30 minute jog just to get the benefits of the outdoors. 

Start small. Grab a blanket and go lay under a tree in your yard for 10 minutes. Take in the surroundings. Watch the leaves on the trees, feel the breeze, notice the sounds. Just be present for 10 minutes. Then work your way up. Once you feel ready for some movement, add in some activity like a short walk and go from there. 

Nature is too big of a motivator to pass up. It can boost our mood on its own, but it can also help us put our own lives into perspective, and remember that life is much more than our current situation.

6. Have a reflection period.

As I mentioned earlier, depression can completely rip away much of our personalities, and can sometimes leave us feeling distant from even ourselves. 

If you want to create a better version of yourself, it’s important to be reminded of who you really are, without the depression interfering. 

A reflection period can be a great way to do this. 

Take a few days, or even a couple of weeks and try to spend some time reflecting on who you are, deep down. 

Grab a notebook and just reflect on who you are, what you love, what you hate, and what you want in life. What do you feel are your weaknesses and strengths? What do you love about yourself and your life, and what would you change? 

Go into this reflection period with an open and positive mindset. Don’t look at it as a way to write down all the things you hate about life or the ways that life sucks. Instead look at it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself so that you can move forward with creating a happier life. 

There’s a good chance that during this reflection time, you’ll be reminded of your passions or goals or interests, and that is extremely motivating. 

With depression, you might feel like a shell of yourself right now. But by remembering who you are deep down, you are already pulling yourself out of depression’s grip.

7. Achieve something.

Everyone loves achieving something. It’s such a motivator! But if you’re depressed, chances are you aren’t going around checking off all of the things you need to get done. You may not even be getting any of the things done. 

But finding one thing to achieve, no matter how small, is a great way to find motivation when you’re depressed. 

Is your whole house a mess and it’s completely overwhelming? Maybe just focus on loading the dishwasher. It’s small, it takes 5 minutes, but it can make you feel so accomplished to check something off of your list. 

Bonus tip: if you’re like me and love the action of checking something off of a to-do list, it can be even more rewarding to write out some to-dos and watch as they get marked off. 

It can help us feel motivated to accomplish something, and often this leads to more things getting done. 

You may think “well, I loaded the dishwasher, I might as well wipe off the counters too.” And if not, then that’s okay, you still got something done!

How to AVOID losing all of your motivation when you’re depressed: 

Just like there are ways to find motivation, there are also many ways to lose it. And it’s equally as important to avoid those situations when possible. 

Here are a few things that can lead to lack of or loss of motivation, especially when you’re depressed:

• Taking in negative content (news, social media, etc.)
• Comparing ourselves to others
• Putting too much on our plates or setting too big of goals
• Rushing ourselves
• Interacting with toxic people
• Dwelling on past mistakes
• Imagining the worst case scenario for situations

It’s no secret, being depressed truly sucks and is really difficult to get through. But if you can find the motivation to push you in the right direction, you can get to where  you want to be and begin to see depression in the rear-view. 

I hope you find some of these tips doable and that they can help you to find motivation, even when you’re depressed. 

If you have or are currently working your way out of depression’s grip, I would love to know what motivates you to keep pushing. Drop a comment with your favorite motivator!

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